Lil Wayne is still holding down his position as one of the hottest artists in the game presently, and the numbers of his most recent tour is indication of that.
According to Billboard.com, Weezy’s 2008-2009 tour raked in enough cash to make it the highest grossing hip-hop tour of the year, grossing an estimated $42 million from December 2008 to September 2009.
During the 78-date cross country trek, the rapper headlined arena after arena, drawing over 800,000 fans.
“It’s definitely one of the biggest in the last couple of years,” Shawn Gee, Weezy’s tour manager, told Billboard. “Our plan was to prove that Wayne was a viable headlining arena artist.”
The tour was also the best earning tour Billboard has ever track. The second was Jay-Z’s 2008 tour with Mary J. Blige, which grossed $34.6 million and drew 310,694 concertgoers to 28 shows.
Kanye West’s 2008 Glow In the Dark tour comes in third, having pulled in $30.8 million from 49 concerts that attracted 507,853 fans.
Weezy began his the trey on the I Am Music Tour in December, which ran through late January and included Keyshia Cole, T-Pain, Gym Class Heroes and Keri Hilson. Then, the America’s Most Wanted Music Festival trek (July 27 through Sept. 6) featured Wayne as the headliner with opening performances by Young Jeezy, Drake (who only appeared at three shows due to an injury), Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, Jeremih and Pleasure P.
Source: BallerStatus